Bates David Enterprise to handle Parachute in Bangladesh

The agency has also won the business of Kolkata's First Trust Health Care chain of hospitals

Marico & #BANNER1 & # has hired Bates David Enterprise to handle the creative duties for Parachute Coconut Oil in Bangladesh. The agency's Kolkata branch has been handling Marico Bangladesh's soap brands, Camelia and Aromatic, since their launch last year.

Abeer Chakravarty, senior vice-president, Bates David Enterprise, Kolkata, says, "While handling the two soap brands, Camelia and Aromatic, we got to understand the psyche of the Bengalis in Bangladesh. This is what helped us in creating and strategising ideas for Parachute Coconut Oil."

Abeer Chakravarty

The business, which is estimated to be in the range of Rs 4-5 crore, was previously handled by a Dhaka based agency, Unitrend. However, the media duties for the product continue to be with Maxus, Bangladesh.

Bates David Enterprise has won another business back home in India - that of First Trust Health Care (FTHC), a newly launched chain of hospitals and clinics in West Bengal.

FTHC plans to have 1,000 hospital beds in place by 2011. Towards this end, it will launch nine hospitals in select districts of West Bengal, each of which will vary in capacity.

Chakravarty says, "We will have to build the First Trust Health Care brand from scratch. The target audience for the brand will be largely non-metro and up-country market."

Remarks Dr Shatadal Saha, chief executive officer, First Trust Health Care, "As we will reach out to the middle class and a section of the lower middle class, we wanted to partner with an agency that could understand the intrinsic requirements of our business. Bates demonstrated the ideal communication model by which consumers will be able to identify themselves with the kind of health-care services we will provide."

The FTHC business is estimated to be in the range of Rs 2 crore. The media duties for the brand will be managed by Carat in India. FTHC will be advertised mainly through print ads in newspapers and magazines, outdoor, radio and other promotion activities.